Design for Additive Manufacturing in Thai Electric Motorbikes: Insights from UTA and KMUTT

Presentation by Prof. Robert Taylor, Professor of Practice, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) as part of Altair's Future.Industry 2025 conference.

Additive manufacturing has demonstrated it can improve performance and reduce cost for certain applications, but realization of these benefits requires careful application-specific design. This work aims to apply design for additive manufacturing and advanced optimization methods to benefit Thai motorbike manufacturing as it works to grow the market for cost-effective electric motorbikes. Analysis and optimization approaches and preliminary design results are shown for candidate motorbike components with potential to benefit from additive manufacturing. Examples are presented of work performed at UTA and King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) where students utilized Altair Inspire among other tools. Through these hands-on experiences, students acquire real-world engineering skills and knowledge in design and advanced manufacturing.